She Was Still Breathing
by The Further
Summary: All she wanted was to indulge. Characters owned by DC Comics.


It was a beautiful day when we found her, mutilated. We were all terrified that some monster would do this, but most of all, we were scared for her.

Every Titan indulged that day, all spending time with each other in the common room one way or another.

Robin and Cyborg were up against each other in a intense and vicious virtual battle of Mortal Kombat while Beast Boy had his lanky arms draped over the back of the couch as he impatiently waited for one of his friends to conquer the other so he could go up against the winner.

Starfire, the local exuberant alien, was busying herself in the kitchen with one of her strange Tamaranean dishes. A violet oil-like substance seemed to be spilling over the edge of the cooking pot and becoming as hard as dried wax on the stove as she stirred with a metal ladle, continuously switching what she stirred with as to not destroy the utensils from the intense heat of the liquid she proclaimed to be "The healthy for the body and the mind."

Only one pigmented violet haired sorceress seemed to be missing from the crowd of metahumans, and Tamaranean. Having prior escaped the stifling common room of Titan's Tower the half-demon had informed her teammates she would be going into the city for a certain book from the local Library.

Each offered to go with her in case of an emergency but she had declined and bidded them a farewell as she excused herself by slipping through the thick metal wall and carrying herself over the bright blue of the bay. She had turned her head around once to glance back at her towering home that seemed to offer protection even from it's lone stand on the secluded island, her billowing cape almost blocking her view, before turning back to her destination to the library.

After having bought the thick copy of "All the King's Men" that she had been curious about for quite some time, even Raven seemed to have gotten the fever of indulgence and wandered herself to the Jump City Park to settle herself under a gigantic oak tree. She did not get to indulge long though as a dark shadow passed over her head and startling her into action as he threw herself to the side as the katana of a immediately recognizable man landed where her neck should been.

Raven took only moments to recover as she recognized the mad man himself staring her dead in her violet eyes with his own gray one, dropping the book she had been enjoying as her hands became encased in an obsidian aura.

Taking up a battle stance with her legs spread wide and her body in an almost crouch like poise the hooded Titan would chant her manta, "Azerath Metrion Zinthos!" before slicing through the towering oak and dissolving into a dark portal shortly after, taking up a hiding spot behind a boulder not a few feet away. She knew quite well that Slade had leaped away as soon as she had waved her hand, and she was no damsel in distress, but it was a battle that was obviously in her adversary's favor and she needed assistance but before she could reach for her communicator her attacker appeared before her and delivered a swift kick to her shoulder, tossing her body off in the intended direction of the collision. "We don't need to do this, girl. I have come to bring a message, and you will be the paper." He then began to charge the sorceress as she slowly lifted herself from the ground after the blow to her body, opting to lift the section of ground before her with her telekinetic powers as a defense. The charging man skidded to a halt as the terrain moved beneath his feet and the hooded girl lifted from the ground behind him, taking hold of his body with a dark aura that had formed into tentacles, hoping to render him immobile but the moment was lost as the experienced man knocked Raven back with a blow to her nose, earning him a groan as she stumbled backwards and released him as she was unable to concentrate. "Damn it." She mumbled as she brought two fingers to her nose and felt a hot liquid brush her finger tips, now scrambling for the communicator at her side and bringing it before her dazed vision. Before she could contact her friends, however, a fist connected with her jaw and knocked her to the ground, a foot crushing the hand that held her communicator.

"You will become the message." Was all she could hear before her vision went dark.

At Titan's Tower, all were immediately distracted by the loud blaring of alarms and Robin was the first to act. He rushed to the mainframe and typed in a few codes and a graph with a blinking red dot appeared over the screen, covering the game. All time seemed to freeze as the Titans recognized the alert to be a communicator sending an immediate distress signal from the park but they soon gathered themselves and rushed to the scene, both Cyborg and Robin using Beast Boy and Starfire as mounts as they flew towards the park.

The arrived too late, it seemed. A group of citizens were at the horrific sight as they stared at one of their protectors, her body defiled and pouring crimson liquid. They seemed set in stone shock as it seemed one of their invincible heroes had been dragged down to this level but they were all immediately shoved through and they quickly formed an aisle to allow her fellow Titans through the crowd and Starfire whimpered quietly.

Before them was the mutilated body of their Teammate and friend. Stakes jutted from her hands and feet as she had been nailed to the boulder she had hid behind not long before and she seemed to be bleeding profusely through several stab wounds, but that was not the worse part of the scene as all four Titans stared at her, their friend, their teammate, their family member, their invincible Raven. No.

She was still breathing and gasping for life. Reducing to a groaning bloody mess as she to clung to her life.


End file.
